Michael Caine Is Officially Changing His Name to Avoid ISIS-Related Security Hassles

From his Henry Higgins-like role in Miss Congeniality to his turn as Alfred in Christopher Nolan'sDark Knight trilogy, London-born actor Michael Caine has long been a fixture in the film industry. But the 83-year-old wasn't born Michael Caine—he was Maurice Micklewhite at birth. But now, Caine has legally shed the Micklewhite name for good, in exchange for his stage name, and he’s claiming ISIS as his reason, reports The Sun.

The trouble would start when security guards at the airport would be confused by the fact that he had two names—the one they knew him by, and the one on his passport. They would keep him waiting, on high alert due to extra security measures:

““I changed my name when all the stuff started with ISIS and all that ... An airport security guard would say, ‘Hi, Michael Caine,’ and suddenly I’d give him a passport with a different name on it,” Caine said. “I could stand there for an hour. So I changed my name.”

And though it’s a change to the public, this shouldn’t feel like too much of a shift for Caine, who has been going by his showbiz name since 1954, when he took the surname from a poster for The Caine Mutiny, reports The Guardian. Until then, he had been performing on the Sussex stage under the name Michael Scott (no, not the fictional one from Scranton, Pennsylvania).

So, life has been a bit of a name game for Caine, but it seems he’s officially settled on this one for good.

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